Jagged Alliance: Flashback - Kickstarter Launched

Myrthos

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The Kickstarter for Jagged Alliance: Flashback has just launched. They are asking for $350K.
Jagged Alliance: Flashback is our vision of returning a once critically acclaimed franchise back to its roots, it's not a reboot, it's a reset!
Our main goal is to bring back the tactical turn-based action that the original Jagged Alliance games are known for - the game was a thinking man's game, a thinking man with lots of guns!
The games were unique in their blend of tactical turn-based action, controlling and maintaining squads of mercenaries, off and on the battlefield. As a player the decisions you made had a direct impact on how you played the game. Additionally, over-the-top personalities, memorable characters and role-playing elements made the games difficult to put away once you were hooked.
The game text will be localized to English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
We will give you a choice of distribution, always including a DRM-free option, for both the core game and future expansions.
Our target platform is PC and the game will be available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

More information.
 
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Yes, I think that might make things easier :)
 
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I would really like to see new TB jagged alliance game but I backed too many kickstarters and I can't back anythings for months unfortunately no matter how interesting it is:(.
 
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best tb game ever (2 that is) ..hoping that this one will top it
 
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Although ME is my favorite game universe ever, I don't think I've replayed any game more than JA2… I *hate* prequels, but I'll back the snog out of this one after I see a few more updates and become convinced these guys 'get it'.

EDIT: I asked them why they went the prequel route and got this response:

"We decided to make a pre-quel in order for us to try and focus on some of the back stories of the original mercenaries. We also wanted the game to be set in the cold war era...It's hard to please everybody."
 
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Best of luck fellas. I just don't have the money right now.

I also am not so sure how I feel about this, as I know diddly about this company's background and such. I'm willing to give them a chance but not necessarily my money.
 
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Kickstarter said:
Jagged Alliance: Flashback is our vision of returning a once critically acclaimed franchise back to its roots, it's not a reboot, it's a reset!
Kickstarter said:
Our main goal is to bring back the tactical turn-based action that the original Jagged Alliance games are known for

These comments make me critical.
What is the franchises roots? It's as far as I concern Jagged Alliance 1. This is not Jagged Alliance 1 but a prequel.
The main goal is to bring back? It was never lost. This isn't UFO, JA didn't have that many titles. And concerning turn-based the space-to-pause function in Back-in-Action works just fine.
 
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It might work as well but it requires more work, developpment, thoughts.

"UgoIGo" is so common that it is no brainer to base a game on it, everything is paved, how to give the illusion of difficulty etc Tried and tested old design.

And yes, you wont get tactics with that turn sequence so quite useless to code a tactical AI.
 
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1st of all, Commandos series was way better at tactical gameplay .. even in real time. So that's big.

2nd I hate this war setting. Dudes .. not that I'm blaming MoH COD etc.. but seriously. put some effort into it. No plot is the worst choice you can make.

3rd no confidence in the project. Its subjective, don't see the engine working smoothly, don't see graphics being updated
 
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Have to watch this one closely. JA2 one of my favourites of all time. Tempted but backed quite a few lately so will monitor and see what additional info they come out with...
 
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Will this game lead to invade an island (or a similar place)starting from an inferior force?
At the moment, it seems that the game will involve several operation theatres.
 
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These comments make me critical.
What is the franchises roots? It's as far as I concern Jagged Alliance 1. This is not Jagged Alliance 1 but a prequel.
The main goal is to bring back? It was never lost. This isn't UFO, JA didn't have that many titles. And concerning turn-based the space-to-pause function in Back-in-Action works just fine.

I guess as roots he means "what jagged alliance is known for" - and in that regards turn based combat is probably the main aspect. The mercs and their personal story + the free world were the other aspects.
BIA got rid of the turn based combat and afaik also decresed the mercs personality.
JAO however got rid of the mercs personality and the free world.

reboot or reset...well...depends on how you define it...guess that JA BIA is called a reboot because it took the old game but "modernized it" by changing it's core values. And he wants to go back to the original game to not lose them. That's how I understand it.

1st of all, Commandos series was way better at tactical gameplay .. even in real time. So that's big.

2nd I hate this war setting. Dudes .. not that I'm blaming MoH COD etc.. but seriously. put some effort into it. No plot is the worst choice you can make.

3rd no confidence in the project. Its subjective, don't see the engine working smoothly, don't see graphics being updated

Commandos and JA shared the same timespan and I kinda thought like "you can only like one of these factions" - and I decided for JA. Comandos was nothig but a puzzle game for me with combat graphics. I disagree that it had better tactics, but that is mainly because I think you were forced to these tactics, while in JA you could play with and without tactics, you had the freedom to use the tactics you wanted and that made it more tactical for me if you know what I mean. But imho that's a matter of taste.

Cold War however does not mean WW2. They didn't say in which year it took place but I guess it will be in the late 80s.

In JA2 you can read that the AIM was founded in 1991, so if they stick to it, it should be right before that.

In a subterranean Montreal bunker in 1991, three men, known only by their aliases Colonel Mohanned, Commander Spice, and The White Asian, found themselves in the heat of an armed struggle without access to enough manpower to end the hostilities. With great effort, they secured financing and located the people they needed to put an end to the conflict.

The underground channels they developed became known as the Association of International Mercenaries. Vowing that others seeking justice should have access to professional soldiers, their assembled team of men and women became the original members of A.I.M. Commanders engaged in small scale, private conflicts adopted the organization as a prime resource for labor.

About the kickstarter:
I think that a goal of 350k $ is a lot of money for such a project. I don't say that they don't need to money to make such a game, but I mean that it will be very hard for such a game to get that amount of money. I guess in their position I would have taken 150k as goal, maybe cut the game a bit, add more by stretch goals and in addition look for additional investors. I think they will have a hard time reaching the 150k with the pitch they have. If they already had some gameplay video to show this might have been different.

I think they should have added an "early bird" option like most of the other "bigger" kickstarters did. Like 200 spots for 20$ to get an initial spike.

I also think that they should have more pledge levels and add bit by bit. A jump from 25$ to 50$ is very bad imho, especially when most players pledge in these regions. I think they should have added an additional level for the soundtrack and so on. Same goes for the physical levels. If I wanted the map I would have to pay 500$.
I am a big fan of the series, but right now the pledge levels and price structure seems highly unattractive to me and instead of the maybe 150$ I am willing to pay for such an "old love" I only pledged the minimum of 25$. I just don't see I get anything worth my money for the other levels.

Also I am wondering about stuff like the the naming of skills in one pledge level.
There are 5 Spots for players to name a skill. So how does this work? JA2 does not have any skills like that. Or do you want to have some player renaming "first aid" to "healthskillz"? For me this means that they will use and ability system. Like you press a button for "Adrenaline Rush" or "Snap Shot" or something like that as you do in JAO as far as I remember (or in any MMO).
Also JA was weapon-porn as they said in the intro. However in the comments they said:
We're aiming for realistic weapons - For names, we're trying to take a humorous approach.
which does not sound very great to me.
 
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Will this game lead to invade an island (or a similar place)starting from an inferior force?
At the moment, it seems that the game will involve several operation theatres.

Yep, it's one island, they explained that in the comment. You have somehwat of a base on the island and then conquer it. Like in JA1 and JA2 with some XCom Base building.

Little updates to the pledge levels from the comments:
Yeah we hope we can keep it going and that people are sharing the news of a JA Kickstarter. Updates incoming and possibly more pledges $5-$100
 
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Would be really interesting to see a modern take on JA2/Silent Storm, and would have thought that would be an instant pledge for me. Just not too bowled over by the pitch or maybe I'm suffering from Kickstarter fatigue.
 
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I don't think I've experienced kickstarter fatigue as of yet....when I have maybe 5 + items sitting in line and released/ready to play, THEN maybe fatigue will set in. However, so far they are all taking their sweet time in getting to me.



-Carn
 
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It would take an fantabulous pitch to get me to contribute given that it's basically a means for BitComposter to get risk free funding for another JA game, same as I wouldn't send a cheque to EA for $50 for a new Jade Empire game- though I might actually buy it once it's released. Still,
We will give you a choice of distribution, always including a DRM-free option, for both the core game and future expansions.
did raise a chuckle. What glories hast thou wrought, Harebrained?
 
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I was surprised to see $25 as the lowest tier to get the game. Strongly agree with Kordanor that having no low end tiers will probably hurt more than help. I definitely would have gone to $30 for the soundtrack.

Overall I didn't fall in love at first sight, but really, pretty much anything with the name JA on it is worth taking a chance for. And these guys really seem to love the IP. Hopefully they'll get the chance to do it justice.
 
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I agree with experiencing lower than expected enthusiasm for this project despite being completely in my wheelhouse of favorite game play. Its getting my pledged though i've only gotten one delivery for a kickstarter so far and have some concerns. $350000 isn't a lot but is hopefully enough for a small team. I didn't think Denmark was significantly lower wages for programmers than say the US or Germany so I hope they have other sorts of funding if this successful but isn't wildly successful.
 
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